Why Huggies is promoting the FIFA World Cup exactly nine months out

Huggies has a message for those in the midst of family planning: Get busy right now.

Why? Great question. If by some miracle a couple who heeds Huggies’s message and conceives right away, their subsequent parental leave should line up perfectly with the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And wouldn’t that be perfect?

To encourage the activity, Huggies and creative agency Gut made a 90-minute spot uploaded to YouTube, called “Do It for the Team,” featuring sultry jams, imagery, and narration designed to get people in the mood. The company also created a shorter 10-minute version, cut-downs for Instagram and TikTok, as well as a Spotify playlist. And if that’s not enough encouragement, Huggies is also running a sweepstakes offering entrants the chance to win six weeks of free diapers come June 2026.

“We care about babies, and we care about parents,” Matt Barresi, VP and general manager for Huggies, told Marketing Brew. “We know that many parents are fervent sports fans, especially around the world’s largest soccer tournament, especially when their national team is at play, right? And obviously parents are very fervent in their love for their babies, and a lot of them love to turn their little ones into the next generation of fervent sports fans. So that’s the inspiration.”

Huggies joins a number of brands lining up to advertise around the 2026 FIFA World Cup months before the competition kicks off. Earlier this month, Verizon unveiled its own sweepstakes with the help of soccer star David Beckham, offering fans a chance to win pitch-side access to World Cup matches.

With that said, getting a jump on next year’s World Cup marketing wasn’t the primary reasoning for the Huggies campaign.

“At the end of the day, we’re really focused on the consumer versus any particular event, and things that are relevant to them are important to us,” Barresi said. “Things like the world’s largest soccer tournament [are] important to them, kind of made us say, like, ‘Oh, there’s some fun if you kind of plan backwards, right?’ So what’s more fun than watching that with the ones you love the most? And nobody loves anybody more than [they love] their baby.”